After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World

Days passed and Althea entered another activity into her daily habits: Using her Growth skill on a few important plants (Note: Cocoa Tree).

Of course, she still trained, meditated, and the like for several hours every day, she still spent time in the lab and research center and, most importantly, she still spent time with her family.

It was really busy but she couldn’t bring herself to slow down at all. It was the same with her husband, who barely slept as he dealt with the various military affairs of the territory.

Well, not tired enough to forgo intimacy, but fortunately he stopped after a few times a night, letting them have some semblance of rest.

Today though was a little different. She had felt the progress in her farm and she decided to focus her day entirely on it.

She went to the farms with the goal of making good progress with the task, so she brought a lot of mana cookies (which Harold already knew to prepare and had stocks of).

She went back to the experimental cocoa to use her skills again. It didn’t matter if she could only deal with one plant for a long time—she just wanted her chocolate!

[Used! Growth Control (C), -50 Mana!]

[Used! Growth Control (C), -50 Mana!]

She used it over and over until her remaining mana for the day was gone. Every day she did this after everything, and she would hasten its growth by a few hours each time.

It wasn’t much considering the mana and the mana cookies she spent, but she didn’t really feel bad. After all, doing this would let her have her chocolate days earlier so she still thought it was worth it! Oh, and she could also train the skill more.

After caring for her cocoa, she then went to the experimental corn. She had chosen a small plot about 1 square meter in size for this. There were six stalks of corn there, and they would serve as her experiential corn to turn to another strain.

She used the Eye and concentrated, focusing on the plants’ make.

The strain of corn that could make popcorn had a hard, moisture-resistant hull that surrounded its endosperm. It also had a starchy interior. When the heat was applied, the moisture trapped inside would pop, creating the snacks that generations of Terrans loved. This was also the quality she needed to cultivate.

With the Eye, she could determine which plant would have the traits she needed. This would save her at least months of breeding because she didn’t even have to wait for them to grow to determine which subjects she could use.

What’s more, with the Growth skill, she could encourage this sort of mutation. Although it wasn’t able to make stark changes (yet), she could enhance these desired qualities. She would use this skill to the plants with the desired properties, making the experiment much more efficient.

On the contrary, it was much harder than just speeding up the plants’ growth and aging. This was understandable because speeding up growth was simply pushing the development to its natural path.

She was now doing quite the opposite.

And she was having quite some fun.

Anyway, for much of the day, she just sat there with the corn, doing trial and error to the different stalks, seeing which seemed to fit the strain she wanted more.

It got to the point that she no longer had mana cookies left.

Sigh.

She stood up and went back to the house. At this time, there was already food prepared for her.

Harold was in the kitchen, also experimenting with the new plants. So far, he had created two dishes, one of which managed to have an effect (albeit with only 10% success rate)

Her babies were apparently next door, an opportunity won by the ladies against the clinic folks through a dangerous game of volleyball.

It was amazing how Lola played. She was apparently a pro back in the day but stopped due to an injury. However, after leveling up, this minor injury was no longer a problem, and she could crush anyone in volleyball.

Hey, maybe she could be a human trebuchet someday.

In any case, the way people floundered to take care of her children was both amusing and made her feel guilty. Considering how busy she was lately, she mostly only saw her children when they were asleep.

Sigh.

Well, if they tasted chocolate she hoped they would understand the sacrifice.

…

Althea returned to the farms after about an hour more of rest, allowing her mana to heal naturally.

She also took several bales of mana cookies, which Harold baked during her break.

She was determined to make some big progress today!

Eventually, after a few hours, she finally saw the needed hardness of the hull. The sky was already dark and the farm slit up by youli lamps. Harold tried calling her for dinner, but her momentum was high and she couldn’t bear to cut it off.

There was still some time to go but she mused that the progress today was very good.

In a few days, she would be able to make the type she needed. In another week or so, the corn fields would be ready to harvest.

She couldn’t wait to taste popcorn!

Best, she already has salt and sugar, which could give the popcorn’s characteristic salt and sweet taste—the so-called bliss point.

Very exciting!

However, before she officially clocked out for the day, so couldn’t help but recall an observation that she kept to the back of her head.

It was just that it didn’t really become clear. It was probably because she was hungry.

”Finally hungry?” A familiar voice said, making her flinch. She turned to look at her husband who had been looming over her.

”When did you arrive?” She asked, but Garan didn’t answer her and just kneeled to her level so he could lift her up.

”You work too hard,” Garan said, patting her bum. She smiled and kissed his chiseled chin. He smiled and carried her all the way to the dining table already set up and just waiting for her.

Althea turned to look at the table, and the first she saw were the children in their high chairs drinking milk from their bottles.

The moment they saw her, the two let go off their suckles and called to her with their toothless grins. Her heart softened and she went down from Garan’s embrace and walked over to kiss their soft faces.

”Aww, I’m sorry my babies,” she said, gently touching their chubby cheeks. ”Mummy will play with you for a whole day when this is over.”

The two babies made cute milky sounds as if talking with her, and they all laughed, marking the beginning of a lovely dinner.